Blog Moved!

I have purchased a domain http://blog.afotey.com/ and i am currently hosting my website and blog http://blog.afotey.com/ there. All the posts here have been imported to my new blog so you can check them out.. Thanks and Remember, stay Open Source :-)

How to Setup and CVS Server on Ubuntu

CVS is a version control system. It's popularly used in programming environments when mutilple users access a shared cod. You can also use it to record the history of source files.

Installation:

At a terminal prompt, The command for installing cvs is:

sudo apt-get install cvs

After you've install cvs, you should install xinetd to enable you start/stop the cvs server. The command for installing xinetd is:

sudo apt-get install xinetd


Configuration:

Once you have installed cvs, by default the repository is automatically initialized. By default, the repository resides under the /var/lib/cvs directory. To change this path, run the following command, replacing the line /your/new/cvs/repo with the path to your new repository

cvs -d /your/new/cvs/repo init

Once the initial repository is set up, We configure xinetd to start the CVS server. Append the following lines to the /etc/xinetd.d/cvspserver file.

service cvspserver
{
port = 2401
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
user = root
wait = no
type = UNLISTED
server = /usr/bin/cvs
server_args = -f --allow-root /var/lib/cvs pserver
disable = no
}


** be sure to change the path to the default path if you have also changed the location of your repository

Once xinetd is configured you can start the cvs server by running following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd start

To confirm that the CVS server is running we issuing the following command:

sudo netstat -tap | grep cvs

When you run this command, you should see the following line or something similar:

tcp 0 0 *:cvspserver *:* LISTEN


From this stage on you can proceed to add usersa and new projects to the CVS Server.



Adding A Project:


This section explains how to add new project to the CVS repository. Create the directory and add necessary document and source files to the directory. Now, run the following command to add this project to CVS repository:

cd your/project
cvs -d :pserver:username@hostname.com:/var/lib/cvs import -m "Importing my project to CVS repository" . new_project start

[Tip]

You can use the CVSROOT environment variable to store the CVS root directory. Once you export the CVSROOT environment variable, you can avoid using -d option in the above cvs command.

The string new_project is a vendor tag, and start is a release tag. They serve no purpose in this context, but since CVS requires them, they must be present.


When you add a new project, the CVS user you use must have write access to the CVS repository (/var/lib/cvs). By default, the src group has write access to the CVS repository. So, you can add the user to this group, and he can then add and manage projects in the CVS repository.

Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/cvs-server.html

Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) Released!

The Latest version Ubuntu code name Hardy Herron Has been released!. It's Ubuntu 8.o4. You can download it from the ubuntu website. The main additions are...

1. Gnome Version 2.22

2. Linux kernel Version 2.5.24

3. Policy Kit

4. Xorg 7.3

5. Firefox 3 Beta release!!

And a host of other features. I'm currently using it and all i can say is that.. I'M LOVIN IT!! The beryl effects which have been packaged with it are mind blowing!! You have to use it to understand what i am saying... Try it out and post your feedback on this blog... In the meantime.. Stay open Source :-)

Installing Squid Proxy Server on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

Squid is a popular http proxy server. Basically a proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the internet sources you are sharing. The data you request first comes through the proxy server before it gets to your pc. Proxy servers basically inspect all traffic (inbound and outbound) over an internet connection and based on certain rules, either permit you to retrieve the data or deny you from accessing the data

You can do more reading about proxy servers from this site http://www.networkmagazineindia.com/200107/basics1.htm

1. Open a terminal/Konsole and type apt-get install squid

2. Edit the following file nano /etc/squid/squid.conf

3. Find the TAG: visible_hostname and after the comments section add visible_hostname <hostname> where <hostname> is your machine’s hostname.

eg. visible_hostname ghanaba where Ghanaba is my hostname

4. Check http_port is either set to 3128 or you can enter any other port number which you can easily remember for configuring your browser.

5. Save and exit the from the file.

6. Add a user to the system by typing adduser squid and specify a password (where squid is the user being added.)

7. Restart the squid server by typing: /etc/init.d/squid restart

8. Stop the squid service by typing /etc/init.d/squid stop

9. Now you can test it the squid server in debug mode by typing squid -z (which creates the cache files)

10. Type squid -NCd10 to test squid in debug mode and leave it running.

11. Now open Firefox and type the URL localhost:3128 or whatever port you had given in the squid.conf file. An error message will appear showing that if failed to retrieve a page, but at the bottom it will confirm that the error is generated by squid.

12. Now on the terminal/Konsole press CTRL-C to cancel the debug mode

13. Start squid for real with /etc/init.d/squid start. It will start automatically from now on.

14. Now we need to configure Firefox to use squid, go to Edit>Preferences and click Advanced.

15. Click Network>Settings and then Manual Proxy Configuration. For http proxy, enter localhost and for port 3128 (or whichever port you had given in the squid.conf file).

16.Click OK and close the Preferences dialogue.

17. Now you enter any URL say www.google.com . If the web page is retrieved the Congratulations Squid is working!!\

You can fine tune the squid server by going through the squid.conf file and making the necessary changes.

############### Please Leave your comments :-) #################

Till Then, Stay Open Source! :-)

Installing Telnet Server on Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon)

Note: Telnet is an insecure service. It is recommended that you can use ssh service. However sometime telnet server or service is needed. here are instructions to enable.


1. First you need to Download the necessary telnet packages using this command
sudo apt-get install telnetd

2. Now we restart the telnet daemon using this command
sudo /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd restart

3. Now you should be able to connect to the system from another pc.

################### Leave Your comments :-) ##########################

Setting up an FTP server on Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon)

1. You need to install the VSTPD package. You can download it and install it from the net using this command
apt-get install vsftpd

2. Now change the configuration file. located in /etc
nano /etc/vsftpd.conf

3. (Remember that the lines which start with '#' are comment out)
a. Disable anonymous access: change the 'anonymous_enable' setting to No and
b. "local_enable" setting to YES

4. Now check the path given for the "secure_chroot_dir" This the FTP directory where the files accessible via ftp are located

5. Now you can restart the FTP server so that the .conf while be reread again using the command
sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart


Note: The above configuration is the basic setup required to get FTP up and running. You can fine tune the server by going through the vsftp.conf file and making necessary changes that you require

############# send your comments :-) ###############


For more information and other advanced options you can check out this wiki http://www.wikihow.com/Set-up-an-FTP-Server-in-Ubuntu-Linux

Installing & Configuring NFS Server on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

(All commands are in bold)

On Server.....

1. download and installs the necessary packages needed for NFS Configuration (the packages are nfs-kernel-server, nfs-common & portmap )
sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common portmap

2. Now we reconfigure Portmap so that it doesn't bind by default to the loopback interface (127.0.0.1) and then we restart the portmap service
sudo dpkq-reconfigure portmap
sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart

3. We open the exports file and define which folders we want to share, and the permissions the users have on the folder
sudo nana /etc/exports

4. make an entry in the file using the following format [ path_to_folder] [ipaddress (permissions) ]. Here is a sample entry in the file

/home/nii/Desktop/lead 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync)
This is the path of the folder being shared. this is the ip addresses allowed to access the folder. i have allowed all ip addresses from 192.168.1.0 till 192.168.1.254 to access the folder hence the /24 notation

5. Now we save changes and restart the NFS server
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

6. Now export the new configuration
sudo exportfs -a



On Client.....


1. install the necessary packages needed for nfs
sudo apt-get install portmap nfs-common

2. Now mount the shared folder on the server unto the client
cd ~
mkdir mounted
sudo mount 192.168.1.1:/path_to/shared/folder mounted

the first command cd~ sends us to our home directory. the 2nd, creates a directory called mounted. The last command mounts the files on the server unto the folder called mounted on the client. The ip address 192.168.1.1 is the SERVER's ip address not the cleint's

3. Congrats! your NFS server has been configured!!! Just navigate to the folder and see if u can see the files which are in the server in this folder

### please leave comments :-) Thanks ###

You can get more information from this Ubuntu wiki http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy#NFS_Server

GNUnify 08.. Unparalleled Success (Spreadfirefox Post)

The Annual Open Source Festival of Symbiosis Institute of Computers Studies (www.symbiosiscomputers.com) called GNUnufy (www.gnunify.in)
was held on the 8th and 9th of February. Among the Prominent Guests were David
Axmark , Co Founder of Mysql and Brian Behlendorf, CoFounder of Apache.
This year, We were lucky to have Firefox Take Part in the Event. They
sent Anant Narayanan to conduct a Mozilla Hackfest and he also give a
lecture on Mozilla Prism.

The Mozilla Hackfest was such a popular event that instead of
having the estimated 90 participants in the Lab for the workshop we had
to accommodate over 225 people in the room. Hence we had about 4-5
people sitting behind a pc during the workshop. And we had to turn so
many more people away because the room was just to crowded :-(.

All the Participants of the Mozilla Hackfest were given Firefox
badges. courtesy of Mary Colvig. Also during the Mozilla Prism talk, we
had a packed room with no room for the people to sit! It was really
amazing. People are really interested in Firefox. After The seminar
quite a number of participants/delegates expressed their interest in
Writing addons for Firefox and Thunderbird.

Some of the other events which took place are, Install Fest, Where
the participants are taught how to install the various flavors of
Linux. A detail description of the various events can bee viewed at http://gnunify.in/event_details.php

Also the Pictures of The event are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/afotey/GNUnify08 and on flickr just search for gnunify 08.

Thanks, Firefox for adding flavor and Colour to the Event!!